KANSAS CITY — When Lani White entered the transfer portal in April after one season at Virginia Tech, her former teammate at Utah knew exactly what she had to do.
During her lone season in Blacksburg, White called former Utah teammate Maty Wilke “pretty much every week,” and the two would spend hours on calls, FaceTimes, and text threads with thoughts on basketball, school or just life.
So when the rising senior from Irvine, California, first entered the portal, Wilke called her immediately … right?
“It was a three-hour FaceTime call in the backyard of my house, actually,” said Wilke, the former Wisconsin transfer who averaged 9.2 points, 2.2 rebounds and 2.1 assists in 31 games last year for the Utes including six starts. “I said, please, just come.
“I knew what she was saying she wanted, and knew we could play together for our last year. We know we fit so well together, and her energy that she brings on and off the court, no one can match that. I missed that for her — and to have her back this year, she fits our culture so well.”
With that — OK, and some more conversations with Utah head coach Gavin Peterson and others (who were all fully on board with a return to Salt Lake City) — White formally transferred back to Utah back on April 24.
But the conversation with one of her best friends who put off homework to sit in a lounge chair on her backyard turf grass didn’t hurt, either.
“I just wanted her to know,” Wilke said, “that I not only loved playing with her on the court, but also loved being with her off the court.”
Of course, White returns to Utah a different player than she left. The 6-foot guard averaged 10 minutes or less in two seasons playing for Lynne Roberts, though she helped the Utes to back-to-back NCAA Tournament bids in 2022-23 and 2023-24.
Her playing time decreased as a sophomore, so White transferred to Virginia Tech, where she rose to start 31 of 32 games, and averaged career highs in points (9.6), rebounds (3.3) and assists (1.4) while shooting 49.1% including 50% from 3-point range for the Hokies.
Not long after the season, White had her mind set on transferring — mostly, she says, to be closer to home. She even went so far as to begin packing her belongings when Wilke sent a FaceTime well before her commitment to her old school.
So White returns to a Utah program as a different player after her All-ACC academic honors.
“I think having coaches there that believed in me and allowed me to play, to experiment, really helped me,” she said. “I learned a lot my freshman year, and finally at Virginia Tech, I was able to flourish a little more.
“I gained confidence in my shooting, my ability to handle the ball, my defense,” she added. “My leash was a lot longer than it was in my freshman and sophomore years. But those are years you’re supposed to learn. I thought they were really good growing years for me.”
That’s OK, because the Utes are different, too.
For starters, Roberts left last year for the WNBA’s LA Sparks, leaving the head coaching job for top assistant Gavin Peterson.
Utah finished 22-9 with a 13-5 mark in its first season in the Big 12, but lost to ninth-seeded Indiana in the opening round of the NCAA Tournament.
Adding to the matter, top scorer Gianna Kneepkens transferred away (eventually to UCLA), joining a lengthy list of departures that already included Mayè Tourè, Ines Vieira, Kennady McQueen and Jenna Johnson, among others.
All of that to say, the Utes are in something of a rebuild after being picked to finish eighth in the preseason by Big 12 coaches. That’s well underneath the top-line teams including No. 14 Iowa State, No. 16 Baylor, No. 17 TCU and No. 22 Oklahoma State, for example.
“To be able to be in the leadership role with her is just awesome. We had so many different experiences, and I think we value the same things,” Wilke said of White. “The way we go about life, not just basketball, is pretty similar. It’s nice to just bounce ideas off her, and I’m excited to again be on the same team as her.”
Maty Wilke dribbles the ball down the court in a road game against Southern Utah in Cedar City on Dec. 16, 2023. (Photo: Anden Garfield, KSL.com)
The Key Takeaways for this article were generated with the assistance of large language models and reviewed by our editorial team. The article, itself, is solely human-written.